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Hot Cross Bunny
Hot Cross Bunny is a 1948 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies short, starring Bugs Bunny. This was the first Bugs Bunny cartoon in the WB-owned TV packages (released August 1, 1948 or later) to be released. Title The title is an obvious play on the nursery rhyme Hot Cross Buns as well as a punny allusion to the basic plot premise. Plot Bugs is "Experimental Rabbit #46" in the Eureka Hospital Experimental Laboratory, a Paul Revere Foundation (which sports the unlikely slogan 'Hardly a man is now alive'). Bugs lives a pampered life, oblivious to the fact that a scientist plans on switching his brain (or at least his personality, since no surgery is involved) with that of a chicken (said chicken bears no resemblance to McKimson-only character Foghorn Leghorn). The scientist brings Bugs out to the operating theater, in front of an audience of fellow doctors. Bugs, of course, thinks he's been brought out to perform. He pulls out all the stops, singing, dancing, scatting (ala Danny Kaye) comedy routines (including his impression of Lionel Barrymore), and magic acts. Upon finishing each act, he looks around to see the unimpressed, stern-faced doctors in exactly the same frame position each time ("What a tough audience! It ain't like Saint Joe!"). The scientist attempts to retrieve Bugs but is pushed away. He strikes Bugs with a hammer while the rabbit is in the middle of a scat routine, but Bugs quickly revives and, having failed as the entertainment, becomes a vendor instead, selling hot dogs to the scientists, only to be hammered again. Learning the scientist's intentions, Bugs runs and a chase ensues. Bugs hides in a closet, unaware there was a skeleton in there, and comes out scared. Then he makes a chocolate malt and tries to fool the scientist to think that it is an explosive cocktail which he will use on him by warning him "One more step and I'll blow ya up!", until Bugs reveals the formula consisting of "manganese, phosphorus nitrate, lactic acid and dextrose". Then he hides near an oxygen tent disguised as a Boy Scout. Finally, Bugs is rendered helpless with laughing gas and placed on the table. With the metallic mind-switching caps on him and the rather uninterested-looking chicken, the experiment was ready to begin. But at the last minute, he somehow cut the wire connecting to his electrode hat and the scientist ends up clucking like a chicken, while the chicken (with the scientist's mind) states in plain English his hope that the experiment can be reversed ("In our next experiment, we will reverse the procedure, I hope."). Bugs tells the audience, "Looks like Doc is a victim of fowl play!". Gallery Availability *VHS - Stars of Space Jam: Bugs Bunny Trivia Censorship *The ABC version shortened the part near the end where Bugs, the doctor, and the chicken are hooked up to the machine to remove the part where all three of them get an electric shock. Notes and Errors *Bugs' dancing from this short would later be reused in the Tiny Toon Adventures episode Prom-ise Her Anything. *Also when the doctor was going to get Bugs for an experiment notice the doctor's uniform turns blue, then turns blue again. *The scientist would later appear, minus the German accent, in the Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries episode called "The Tail End?". *Before the cartoon starts, the Warner Bros. Entertainment logo is shown in both the Stars of Space Jam: Bugs Bunny video tape and modern airings on CN and Boomerang. *'Working Title:' The Rabid Rabbit *This was the first Bugs Bunny cartoon in the WB-owned TV packages (released August 1, 1948 or later) to be released. *The cartoon was reissued on November 1959, in the 1959-60 season, around the same time that Unnatural History was released, with the original closing replaced. It is the oldest released post-1948 cartoon to be reissued. Most cartoons from 1948 were reissued in the 1957-59 season. External Links *Hot Cross Bunny at B99.TV * Category:1948 films Category:1948 shorts Category:Shorts Category:Merrie Melodies shorts Category:Merrie Melodies Category:Looney Tunes Category:Looney Tunes shorts Category:Warner Bros. Cartoons Category:Warner Bros. Animation Category:Animated shorts Category:Bugs Bunny Category:Bugs Bunny shorts Category:Directed by Robert McKimson Category:Blue Ribbon Category:Blue Ribbon shorts Category:Best Short Academy Award winners Category:Vitaphone short films Category:1948 Category:1940s Category:1940s shorts Category:1940s films Category:Cartoons directed by Robert McKimson Category:Warner Bros. shorts Category:Films Category:Cartoons produced by Eddie Selzer Category:Produced by Eddie Selzer Category:Story by Warren Foster Category:Written by Warren Foster Category:Cartoons written by Warren Foster Category:Animation by Charles McKimson Category:Animated by Charles McKimson Category:Cartoons animated by Charles McKimson Category:Animation by Phil DeLara Category:Animated by Phil DeLara Category:Cartoons animated by Phil DeLara Category:Animation by Manny Gould Category:Animated by Manny Gould Category:Cartoons animated by Manny Gould Category:Layouts by Cornett Wood Category:Cartoon layouts by Cornett Wood Category:Backgrounds by Richard H. Thomas Category:Cartoons with backgrounds by Richard H. Thomas Category:Film Editing by Treg Brown Category:Cartoons with sound effects by Treg Brown Category:Voice Characterizations by Mel Blanc Category:Voiced by Mel Blanc Category:Voices by Mel Blanc Category:Cartoons with voices by Mel Blanc Category:Music by Carl Stalling Category:Musical Direction by Carl Stalling Category:Cartoons with music by Carl Stalling